I recently purchased Pattern Magic by Nakamichi Tomoko online at Amazon and while waiting for it to arrive I happened upon it at a local bookstore (at twice the cost) so I couldn’t resist looking through it. I have to say straight up that this book was so good I bought it there and then on the spot … so now I have two copies … it’s ok because I know who to give the other copy to.
I seriously recommend this book to anyone interested in achieving simple special effects in their garments by utilising what I can only call a cross between traditional flat pattern making and origami … easy to read, clearly illustrated and very inspiring. It’s not a stretch fit book … it’s all wovens … but to any pattern maker it’s pure gold. Buy it!
That’s the good bit … now for the bad and ugly bit ….
Something has been bugging me for a while and I can’t bring myself to keep quiet any longer. There happens to be a fellow out there professing to have invented almost every pattern technique ever known (ok that’s a slight exaggeration but give him time) … he knows who he is (don’t you Don McCunn?). When I first encountered him he claimed that by sticking bits of paper over a breast (what the actually qualified amongst us call draping) he could create a “3D pattern” … a technique he claimed to have invented. Wow … over all these centuries of draping it was apparently he who invented it! I found this the ultimate in arrogant and to me his tone was as if he were preying upon the innocent.
Later he seems to have claimed that by using more than one dart below the bust line you could get a betting fitting block/sloper … this second dart ended at the tangential corner of the front armhole … again something he seems to profess is his invented technique. Sorry to tell you Don but this is a corsetry technique going back to Georgian times. Now I know he knows he isn’t the inventor of such techniques but I’m stunned as to why he keeps claiming he is. Multiple darts are (and always have been) the bread and butter of close fit pattern makers. He does claim he did a costume history course so he should know this goes back at least a few hundred years.
More recently he’s invented a new thing called a ‘sling’ as an alternative to a bra … now you can listen to all the justifications for the benefits of this invention of his but of course what you are actually looking at is nothing more than a halter neck bikini top (he’ll justify why it’s more than that) … perhaps the fuller coverage is more reminiscent of Ms Monroe’s halters rather than a modern one, but it’s a halter nonetheless.
Then to top it all off he’s invented this marvellous new concept of putting two darts under the breast instead of just one … really … his invention again? I’m not sure how many times I’ve used multiple darts over the last 20 years but it’s quite a lot … and I sure didn’t invent it … I think I borrowed if from the 5 tucked darts from the blouses in the 40′s. Again, multiple darts are nothing new.
I’m starting to think that every time he runs short of money by selling the established existing techniques that are already freely available on the net he must look up something from history that seems remotely interesting and claim that he invented it so he can sell it to even more poor gullible victims. I find this an appalling insult to all those who’ve actually done their study, the work and who’ve given recognition to those who’ve come before them. Don you are nothing but a thief peddling the wares of others. There … I said it … prove me wrong!
Gee I hate being negative but when is this guy going to stop claiming the work of others as his own and just teach the damn stuff for what it is …. well established pattern making. Perhaps if he actually did a recognised fashion degree he might realise what came before him … yet even without qualifications he’s trying to teach others … and misleading them. Disgusting.
Rant over. If he doesn’t like it he can sue me!
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I find his website rather… amusing, anyone with a bit of experience, sees that this just isn’t trustworthy, maybe it’s cause i’m from europe and just don’t trust online courses, but his website just looks shabby, and the pictures he uses on the cover of his book is from Rundschau. Their books use the exact same dolls to show you how to take measurements, that’s just a bit sad… and his youtube-video’s, well… they’re just pityfull. i think he’s just a sad old man who seriously doesn’t know where he’s going, he should leave fashion and go do something else, cause he’s only harming the business, especially for those who are just beginning, they need all the help they can get from anyone, but not by pitfull fools.
i get your frustration, people who make this world a more screwed up place shouldn’t exist.
Greetings
Hehehe, it’s funny about the darts about breasts, I learned that from a Zenskie Korseti (for empire dress).
Stuart, thank you for taking Don McGunn to task. He irks me no ends! He preys on the gullible and inexperienced. Always pushing his useless books and can never explain a technique without telling people to buy his useless book. He gives me the creeps, makes me want to ‘shout’ at him to shut up and go away. I watched his bra-making video somewhere online and was in complete awe at the nonsense he was doing. Amazing!
I agree about Mr. McCunn. I could not believe that in the time it took for a single YouTube video, he had claimed to invent various patterning and construction processes. I’m not a fashion designer, but I sew, and have for decades. I make my own suits, dresses, blouses, and skirts. Judging by his apparent age, and considering the fact I was learning those same techniques from my Grandmother, who learned them from her aunt, he must have invented them before he was even a gleam in his parents’ eye(s).
If he does sue you, contact me any time. He is taking credit for matters so far into the public domain, they can neither be patented nor can he even get a design patent on them. He couldn’t get a copyright on most of what he claims as his. Original? Not he. Not a bit. Not an inventor. Not at all in the way he claims.
I just thought his claims were hyperbole. The sort of ego-feeding that some feel they need, when he could have said more easily that, for this fabric, this body and this fit, the following techniques were applied with the following improvement/steps/procedures.
Sling bras were all over South Pacific –stage show and movie. Double darts? My mother’s high school graduation gown had them, and she graduated in the Depression. I wore it when we played “bride” in 1959. (Oops, just gave a bit of my age away.)
But wait, there’s more. He’s invented every sleeve shaping technique that I learned when I started sewing at the age of 8. I am older than he is, or at least the same age. That peasant blouse design? Did it myself in 1968. Sling bras? Ditto, 1966.
I am not a fashion designer. I am an intellectual property attorney, and particularly loathe and despise those alleged ‘inventors’ that try to claim that invention that could not, under any circumstances, be their own. I fire clients that make those claims, no matter what they say they will pay me for my services. I have reported false claims to courts where I have nothing to do with a case, using the ever handy amicus brief that is so often heard of in the Supreme Court, but can be filed from the district court levels to the very top of the judicial food chain. Interestingly, it works, when (ahem) judiciously applied. I do it very infrequently, but I do it when justice demands.
I have even reported such shenanigans to the Patent Office. Not on my own clients (because that is a violation of ethics–I just fire them and inform subsequent counsel of the problem, and it goes away.) I report on inventors that I know are filing and prosecuting inventions that are not their own, during the appropriate comment periods for patent examination. And, while McCunn isn’t claiming an invention like the cure for cancer, it is a trend in this world to lie, confabulate, or inflate one’s credentials and past achievements. I am sick of it. Truth is in short supply in the legal profession. I am working to reverse that trend.
As for suing you? Well, he’d get dismissed pretty fast, because one thing the courts don’t like is the claim to invention that are false. And truth is a defense to the absolutely non-libelous true statement. In other words, he can file the suit for libel, but would never prevail. It is only libel when it is a false statement. Same standard for slander. So, don’t worry. If he does sue you, a simple little smiting in the form of a motion to dismiss a frivolous suit, based upon the absolute truth, will be all that’s needed to put his claims in the proper perspective. Cheers!
Oh I see. Well. That happens to me all the time. Not with respect to Don but other home sewers like Claire Schaeffer etc. People will write and say that so and so said to do it such and such way but what I tell them is that if they can’t make that way work for them, then me who knows less than they do, can’t make their way work either.
Ahhh you know me Kathleen … I love to rant (maybe it’s the english blood in me) and this guy just gives me so much to rant about.
My main issue really (and I actually forgot to mention this in my rant) is that I tend to get a lot of mail asking me to explain things in his swimwear pdfs that people don’t understand and he won’t tell them because he simply doesn’t know and apparently gets upset when they work this out for themselves. It’s hard enough trying to teach without having to first unteach if that makes any sense! After they’ve paid him money and can’t get a response out of him they somehow seem to think I owe them something next … work that one out!
Oh you just resent him without warrant, lol. Here’s what he says about you:
“Stuart Anderson… and I are like oil and water. If you have any communication with him I suggest you do not mention my name in any way, shape, or form. If you do, my guess is you will get an extremely long email telling you how I don’t have a clue of what I am talking about. Whenever I see his name crop up, I have learned to ignore his messages. Life is too short to be in a constant argumentative state.”
I thought it was hilarious that he used the term “argumentative”. Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, meet pot. Speaking of argumentative, Don doesn’t pass on an opportunity to gratuitously slam RTW -unless he finds it to his financial advantage to do otherwise. For example, he wrote:
“Yesterday I had great fun working with my model Alex creating an ‘Homage to Project Runway and Heidi Klum’ the hostess. I thought the time had come. I had been intrigued by the $11 Million Bra Heidi modeled for Victoria Secret. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to do a knockoff. This was over two years ago just after I had completed my eBook ‘How to Make Bikinis and Bandeaux’ and I was able to use that design system to create it. This is the same design system I am using for my next class on Swimsuits, Lingerie, and Empire Dresses.”
I’m not as special as you Stuart. Based on messages forwarded to me, he says I don’t understand the “whys” of pattern making and by implication, not worth the effort of his time saying:
“I only regret that my work has kept me too busy to actually take any thing other than a cursory look at Kathleen’s comments.”
Odd then, that while he hasn’t had time to do anything but take a “cursory look” at my comments, it has not kept him from saying:
“Please, please, please take what ever you read on [Fashion-Incubator.com] with a grain of salt. I’ve read several of her commentaries and find the information there is frequently either miss guided or incorrect.”
I think my most favorite thing he’s ever said was in reference to the “Rosie the Riveter” paper dolls book:
“If I [sic] was suggesting a Project Runway challenge, I would hand the designers a copy of this book and say ‘use this for your inspiration.’ Of course given the working environment and time constraints of the challenges I doubt they could nail the wonderful fit and detail of these clothes.”
This never fails to make me laugh. The “wonderful fit and detail of these clothes” are DRAWN on paper dolls. By definition, they’re ILLUSTRATIONS. I’m sure the PR contestants (anyone really) could DRAW outfits that were just as fitted and detailed.
Returning to what I consider are his gratuitous and often unwarranted criticisms of RTW, if you’re any good at what you’re doing, you aren’t driven by [peremptory resentment with] the constant need to knock everybody else down in order to elevate yourself by comparison -which could imply he thinks he’s speaking truth to power. Meaning, only he would know why he feels driven to exhort the comparative superiority of what he has to offer.
I wouldn’t worry about it Stuart. Anyone with the intellectual wherewithal to pursue the craft with diligence sees through him readily enough.
…never heard of him, but a twat is always a twat.
Hi Heidi, I haven’t completely left, I’m just not really adding any more instructions to this site. I do like to rant a bit now and then so that and answering questions is really all I do here now. I am spending much more time with my kids instead and starting a whole different fashion project for my own fun (www.ittybittyevilkitty.com if you want to have a good laugh at me).
I thought it was only me. I do not understand why Don is so high praised?
I have not read his books, but what I saw on the excerpts and videos was so very simple(how he “darts”).
lg
heidi
by the way, Stuart, I like that you have not gone from the net. It is refreshing to read from you.
I was kicked out of his Yahoo bra group and fitsnobs for asking questions. Neither am I the only one I know of. It seems the groups are there to make him feel self-important and to help sell his online e-books which are rubbish. He is creepy.
I don’t usually agree with talking bad of others but I do find Don repugnant and patronising. He is too quick to anger when frustrated, which is often. Fitsnobs kicked me out just for asking the same question twice because I thought Don’s answer was wrong the first time. Very self-serving. Snobs is an apt name
It’s fantastic that they’ve translated this book into English, I fell in love with it a little while back when it was only in Japanese, so much so that I bought it despite not being able to speak or read Japanese. The pictures & numbers are really easy to follow though & I’ve since used this book to modify a couple of dresses to great effect. I love this book!!! Pattern Magic 2 is also a must in my mind (I have that one too… obsessed maybe?).